Microsoft spends 'only' $511 million on legal bills

Microsoft is celebrating only spending
$511 million on legal bills this year.

Two years earlier the outfit had to pay
$2.3 billion in payouts.

According to the Seattle Pi , the $511
million included payments in antitrust and unfair-competition class actions,
intellectual property claims and a payment to extend a patent agreement with Sun
Microsystems.

The company's highest-profile antitrust
payout was the settlement of a consumer class-action suit in Iowa. Microsoft
agreed to pay up to $180 million in that case.